youngbull15

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Sep 18, 2010
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18,510
I did this about nine months ago and have loved the cpu. My wife has turned gamer and wants to have me build her a pc. My old set up has a i7-920 radeon hd 5850 xfx 80 gig ssd cooler master bla bla ( not sure number case ) paid about 300 for the asus mobo. w/ a 1k gig 2nd drive for storage. only 700 wat power supplie. big but works sc2 like a pro.

Kinda feeling like I want to do a simaler build. But not sure if I should stick with Intel vs AMD and Radeon vs Nvidia. This cpu will have a main use for playing the new ff14 mmo. I used stock cooling never bother with the OC stuff. I supose I am too n00bish to learn it. The idea of water flowing next to my investment makes me too nervous to try that style of cooling.
 
If your wife likes your system, I would give it to her and build the new one for yourself. If you don't need an i7, then an amd system should work fine and save you some money. Watercooling isn't necessary if you're not overclocking. I wouldn't mess with it.
 

johnnyq8

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Jun 10, 2010
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first lets talk about cpu
if your new build is for gaming only i would get amd they will be good enough and save you some money but if you want better cpu for gaming and video encoding and mulitasking i would go with intel
second about GPU lets talk about what interest you if you want eyefinity multi screen setup you will go with the radeon and i will go with hd 5870 but if you want physx - 3d vision - cuda - multi screen setup ( requires 2 GPU's ) you will go with nvidia but for myself im little fan of ati because they have long list of cards that support DX 11 but nvidia have few of cards that support DX 11 and by the way nvidia new cards are power hungry and runs very very hot except the GTX 460 this is good card it is the card that comparable with HD 5770 and at last for cooling water cooling will be no needed if you are not going to overclock and if you going to overclock you can install aftermarket heatsink fan stay away from the water cooling it may spill at any time with no reason and you know what will happen and at last for storage i would go with dual intel 40 GB ssd in raid 0 for the system that will be enough for system but for storage i dont know how many size you will need
good luck.
 
For gaming, i7 isn't exactly cost effective. Like johnnyq8 said, AMD like a Phenom 2 965 is a good choice. The Intel i5 750 or 760 are generally better all around but cost a tad more.

I'd probably recommend a GTX 470 GPU, it's pretty high end and has all the cool features for a reasonable price.

Definitely wouldn't go with watercooling! Just get a case with proper air flow (couple intake fans, couple exhaust fans) and it should be ok since you aren't overclocking.